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The Joule-Thomson Effect

(/multiphysics) Mechanical The Joule-Thomson Effect

What Is the Joule-Thomson Effect?

For several years, James Prescott Joule and William Thomson –
both British physicists – worked in collaboration, conducting
experiments designed to analyze and advance
thermodynamics. In 1852, the researchers made a particularly
notable discovery. They found that a temperature change can
occur in a gas as a result of a sudden pressure change over a
valve. Known as the Joule-Thomson effect (or sometimes the
Thomson-Joule effect), this phenomenon has proven to be
important in the advancement of refrigeration systems as well
as liquefiers, air conditioners, and heat pumps. It is also the
effect that is responsible for a tire valve getting cold when you
let out the air from a bicycle tire.

The temperature change pertaining to the Joule-Thomson

effect can occur when a flowing gas passes through a pressure
regulator, which acts as a throttling device, valve, or porous
plug. Here, a temperature change is not necessarily desirable.
To balance out any Joule-Thomson related temperature
changes, a heating or cooling element can be used.

Definitions of Symbols Used to Describe the Joule-

Thomson Effect
Before analyzing the Joule-Thomson effect mathematically,
you need to be familiar with the nomenclature that is used to
describe the effect. The table below provides an overview of
the relevant nomenclature:

Symbol Quantity SI Unit

Specific enthalpy

Heat capacity

Temperature

Pressure

Specific entropy

Specific volume

Density

Joule-Thomson coefficient
Understanding the Joule-Thomson Effect
Consider the image below, describing a gas flow that expands
through a porous, permeable plug from a higher to a lower
pressure state, with thermally insulated walls.

(https://cdn.comsol.com/cyclopedia/joule-thomson-effect/Porous-
plug.png)

Schematic of throttling through a porous plug.

This is an adiabatic throttling process. No heat or mechanical

work is exchanged with the environment. Fundamental
thermodynamic definitions can be used to develop an energy
balance for the flow process into and out of the porous section,
with 1 representing the inlet and 2 representing the outlet:

(1)
where is the enthalpy and is the velocity (m/s). Here, any
magnetic, electric, and nuclear energy contributions are
neglected. For gas flows at moderate velocities, it is safe to
disregard the kinetic energy change in comparison to any
enthalpy changes:

(2)

Therefore, it is evident that the process happens at constant

enthalpy – in other words, it is isenthalpic. Most engineers
remember from their textbooks that an enthalpy change can
be calculated from the material property heat capacity,
, as

(3)

At this point, from the equation above, one might jump to the
conclusion that if is 0, then must also be 0,
assuming that is never 0. Such a conclusion contradicts the
experimental findings from Thomson and Joule. The two
physicists found that some gases actually change in
temperature at throttling. But how can this be explained? The
answer lies in some thermodynamic reasoning and the concept
of ideal versus real gases. Unfortunately, Eq. (3) is not entirely
true; it is a special case for ideal gases (and liquids).

Looking at a more general situation, is a thermodynamic

state function. According to the so-called Gibbs' phase rule, the
function must have two degrees of freedom for a substance
with a fixed composition in one phase. This means that the
state of a gas can be exactly determined, provided that the
values of exactly two other state functions are known.
Determining the enthalpy can be accomplished by determining
two other arbitrary state functions. The options include:
temperature ( ), pressure ( ), entropy ( ), specific volume (
), or internal energy ( ) and more. The only requirement is
that two of them are determined.

Here's an example that uses temperature and pressure:

A small change, , in the enthalpy will, by the chain rule, be:

The indication represents a partial derivative of

with respect to , where is the second degree of freedom

selected and is held constant. This can be integrated and
replaced with the definition of :

(4)

The first term on the right-hand side is the enthalpy change of

an ideal gas, and the second term is the additional contribution
due to the nonideality of the gas. This can be interpreted as the
work that must be exerted to overcome intermolecular forces.
An ideal gas, by definition, has no intermolecular forces. For
an isenthalpic process, Eq. (4) also helps in the interpretation
of any slight temperature change, as it is able to provide the
exact amount of thermal energy conversion needed to
overcome intermolecular forces.
Revisiting the experiments of Thomson and Joule, the two men
found it practical to relate their observations of temperature
change at constant enthalpy to something measurable: How
much does the temperature change for a small change in
pressure, holding the enthalpy fixed? They referred to it as the
Joule-Thomson coefficient, :

(5)

(https://cdn.comsol.com/cyclopedia/joule-thomson-effect/Data-plot-for-
measurements.png)
A plot showing the throttling path in a temperature-pressure diagram. The isenthalps are

indicated by h = constant. The path of a throttling process goes from a point, , and

moves left along an isenthalp, passing through , as well as possibly and .

Depending on the start pressure and temperature and the final pressure, the temperature

can either increase or decrease for a specific gas. The limiting line where a temperature

increase changes to a decrease is called the inversion line.

Thomson and Joule performed extensive work to measure and

collect data for common gases. To make Eq. (4) useful in
practice, it needs to be related to measurable quantities. The
cyclic theorem from mathematics states that

When rearranged, the equation becomes:

(6)

Inserting Eq. (6) in Eq. 4 gives the following:

(7)

This formula lends itself to evaluation via computer programs

or by hand, since the integrated quantities are measurable.

Another useful observation is that a pressure-dependent

relation for heat capacity, , can be distilled from the
measured data. Reviewing Eq. (6), the term on
the left can be dissected. Combining the first law of
thermodynamics with the definition of enthalpy, ,
provides the energy differential:
Taking the -derivative at the constant, , on both sides, gives

(8)

The well-known Gibbs free energy differential,

, with the so-called Maxwell relations (test for
exactness), results in

(9)

Inserting Eq. (9) in Eq. (8) produces

(10)

Finally, inserting Eq. (10) in Eq. (6) breaks out as

(11)

When we have access to a nonideal equation of state,

, it is possible to evaluate this expression using a
computational tool.

Summary of the Joule-Thomson Effect and

Recommendations
Most gases at normal temperatures are slightly cooled at
throttling, with the exception of hydrogen and helium. The
internal cooling happens because heat is converted to work
that is exerted to overcome intermolecular forces. Ideal gas
relations disregard any intermolecular forces and thus miss
out on the Joule-Thomson effect. As such, relying only on ideal
gas law assumptions when doing flow calculations with
computational tools can be risky.
 • Many engineering textbooks and handbooks include a
section on the Joule-Thomson effect as well as tabulated
data for common gases. This information can be
applied to the formula of Eq. (7) and used in both
computer simulation programs as well as for calculations
by hand.
• For more accurate calculations where you need to capture
a possible pressure dependency of , an alternative route
is to use a nonideal equation of state, , and
evaluate , as in Eq. (11).

References
1. Kenneth Wark, Jr., Advanced Thermodynamics for Engineers (McGraw-
Hill, Inc., 1995)

RELATED (aeroacoustics) (thermal-expansion-and-

Aeroacoustics RELATED
Thermal Expansion and Thermal
Stresses

thermal-stresses)
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• Aeroacoustics • Acoustic-Structure Interaction
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• The Joule-Thomson Effect interaction)
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effect) (/multiphysics/material-fatigue)
• Thermal Expansion and Thermal
Stresses (/multiphysics/thermal-
expansion-and-thermal-stresses)
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